This is a virtual learning assignment that could be used in any course to address current events, information literacy skills, and media literacy skills.  Please note that the assignment references a proprietary resource: the Proquest online database.  Teachers may need to modify the referenced resource (particularly in Phase 1) to include one that is available to their students.

Students choose a newsworthy article about something happening at the international, national, state, or local level. Students use the model below to set up a current event that includes summary, evidence, commentary, and citations. 

English Instructional Plan – Grades 9- 12: Current Events Persuasive Debate and Essay   

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Equal Rights Amendment. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

This is a remix of a previous resource:
Franky Abbott, Samantha Gibson, (2016) The Equal Rights Amendment. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-equal-rights-amendment

The remix includes new visuals and questions pertaining to the renewed interest in passing the ERA.

Students will learn about cartoonists Charles Schulz and Jackie Ormes, and the correlation between their comics and current events of their time. Inspired by their work, students will create their own comic strips to share their perspectives on a current event they feel a personal connection with or that they have interest in.

Students will compare portrayals of individual soldiers to depictions of battle scenes, write two articles representing two different perspectives about a current war, and manipulate a photograph to alter its mood.

Students will compare propagandistic strategies in artworks to modern-day examples of persuasive techniques and create a propaganda poster for a current political leader.

Students will examine the influence of Greek and Roman mythology on art, discuss strategies of propaganda in an ancient portrait and a 17th-century cabinet, and create a campaign poster for a classroom candidate that uses Greek or Roman iconography.